The Fast Diet Update

If you've found your way here from the Indo, welcome! I'm still a bit in shock that my weight was published in a National Paper, but with a few glasses of wine I am sure I will recover! :)

I have now lost a total of 20lb on the fast diet and still love it.  I schedule my fast days on Mondays and Wednesdays when I am busy with the kids activities and don't really have time to think about eating.  I also make sure to cook something for them that I don't really like, like Spaghetti Bolognaise or Shepherd's Pie.  I hold off on eating in the morning as long as I can and will then have an omelette or a couple of mini-quiches or my healthy asian soup. 

After the kids are fed and in bed, I will worry about dinner, as I find I get most nibble-ish at night.  If I have my dinner later, around 8:30pm or so, I find that I don't have as much of a problem.  I will often treat myself to Bang Bang Prawns, which is so damn good I feel like I'm cheating, or I'll make a big salad with cos lettuce, chopped apple, cucumber, tomato, red onions and enough chicken to finish off my 500 calories. I use a fat free low-cal dressing.

I switch to skim milk in my tea on fast days and drink a lot of it as well as some herbal or green tea, which keeps me from snacking and keeps me hydrated.  All in all, the day goes quickly and when you know you can eat anything the next day, it's completely doable.

I find I don't eat anything the next day though and actually eat less than normal. I'm just not as hungry. The strange thing was that during the month where I had to pack/move/unpack/have mother-in-law here from America/do Easter and be generally ridiculously busy I didn't diet.  I expected to step on the scale and be up a lot. Nothing. Not an ounce. It was very strange, not like other diets at all where you usually gain it all back and more. I think it really does alter your metabolism for the better.  Energy wise I feel great and much sharper mentally.

For fast days I use My Fitness Pal to track my calories on my iPhone and if I am feeling nibbly I use my soda stream and make some fizzy water and flavour it with lemon or lime juice and it feels like a refreshing treat.  I really see no downside and I have been on every diet ever invented since I was eight, yes eight, years old! 

So that's the latest, I don't anticipate stopping anytime soon, have a ways to go and feel for once in my lifetime that it's something I can do! If you're also on the diet, what are some of your tips and tricks?  Feel free to ask questions too, the more support and help we can get, the better we'll all do!  Here's to a happy and healthy 2013! :)

The Fast Diet: Bang Bang Prawns

I have been dieting my whole life. I was first brought to Weight Watchers when I was ten years old.  I have tried every diet under the sun multiple times. I've lost weight and gained it back plus more. None of them are long term for me. I can count calories and eat rabbit food for a few weeks but I inevitably give up or get frustrated and go back to page one.  Recently someone told me about the fast diet, a diet where you have a light fast twice a week and eat whatever you want on the other days.  I thought it sounded intriguing but left it at that knowing it was another diet and as such destined to fail.

Then I was placing an order on Amazon when it popped up with the book being on sale for three quid, so I thought why not and bought it.  I read it cover the cover and was waiting for the part that said, yes you fast those two days, but you have to only eat wholewheat and low fat the rest of the week, but it never did.  You really can eat anything on the other five days.  I figured it couldn't be that hard and gave it a try.  I am on week three and have lost ten pounds.  I cannot believe it.  It is the easiest thing in the world and so workable into your daily schedule.  You are allowed 500 calories on fasting days (600 for men) which is not a lot, but totally doable when you know you can eat a doughnut for breakfast the next day!  Being a good cook helps too as you can really make the most of those calories.  It's just gone twelve now and I've just had my first meal of a fasting day, I'll eat my second with the kids tonight.  I schedule my fast days on my busiest days, days when I have to run the kids places and barely think about eating, that way I won't get focused on any hunger I may feel.  I've found I tend to get hungry after they go to bed, but just sip herbal tea and do some crochet and it keeps my mind of it.  Going to bed early helps too!

The strange thing though is that you're not hungry the next morning and you are generally less interested in food as a whole.  Hubby brought me my favourite-sit-down-eat-an-entire-box-at-once chocolates on Valentine's day and they literally just sat there.  I had one or two, but had no interest in the rest. SO WEIRD!  I'm down ten pounds and really loving this plan, it's the type of thing I can do easily, without fretting and fit it into my life as it is now. No special shopping, expensive light foods, hell I haven't even done much exercise!  And did I mention how much more clear my mind is? It's insane, I'm on fire these days, the house has never been cleaner, I'm more cheerful, energetic, even the kids have noticed. I LOVE IT!

Anyways... enough proselytizing, fast diet or not, this particular recipe is bloody delicious for anyone!  It's 250 calories according to myfitnesspal which makes it a perfect fit for the fast diet fasting days.

Bang Bang Shrimp
(serves 1)
Adapted from: Skinny Taste

Ingredients:

• 120g peeled and de-veined raw prawns
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• Cooking spray
• 1.25 tbsp light mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
• 1/2 tsp sriracha sauce
• 1 cup shredded ice berg lettuce
• 1/4 cup shredded purple cabbage
• 1 scallion, thinly sliced

Coat raw prawns in cornstarch and fry over a high heat about 1.5 minutes each side until cooked through.

Meanwhile make sauce by mixing mayonnaise, sweet chilli and sriracha.

Toss prawns in sauce and serve over the cabbage and lettuce mix.  Sprinkle with scallions to serve.